Blood Brothers
by xt1me
Summary: A short scene from a mission with the Howling Commandos in WW2


They dragged Steve to a rocky outcrop near the trees.  
It was the nearest place with a bit of cover they could find after the Hydra base blew.

The Howling commandos had been caught somewhat unawares by the explosion, it seemed that they were getting enough of a reputation that the Hydra scientists in the base decide to destroy everything before they could reach it. This had lit up Dernier's bombs that had been set before the raid. The result was pretty spectacular. Unfortunately they hadn't been in a position to appreciate it as they had been entering said base at the time.

The scientist's panic did mean that they just got caught in the outskirts of the blast. Only getting battered around for the most part.

The exception, of course, was Captain America. Who, since he was in his accustomed position at the front, got the worst of it.  
He'd manged to help the commandos with the last of the stragglers before collapsing from the giant piece of shrapnel sticking out of his gut.

"Goddamn it Steve," Bucky cursed as he lowered the big lug down onto rock, "Quit your squirming."

"I'm fine. " Steve gasped out, incredibly unconvincingly, "Just pull it out. I'll heal."

"Nothing doing Cap," Gabe slumped down next to him trying to push through a mild concussion to get a look at the wound. "That looks like it's close enough to your intestines to cause leakage. I'm not chancing that your super immune system can't get knocked out by your own super waste."

Steve ignored the mutter of "Oh gross" from one of the others and tried to think through the pain.

"It's only going to try and heal around it if you leave it there," he gasped, "Surely that's worse."

"Yeah, and none of us are really up for field surgery." Morita commented from where he was tying a make shift bandage on his arm.  
Gabe looked around at the others, "Sarge, Frenchie, you two have the steadiest hands."

Bucky looked at him team, they all knew what was coming.

"Right," he said stealing himself, "Dum Dum, try to hold him still will ya. Monty, Jim, keep an eye out. We really don't want to find out that there were survivors the hard way. Gabe, you remember the most from those first aid courses, talk us thought this. Steve, grab a rock and try not to move, ok."

Steve just gritted his teeth and nodded as the others took their positions. Bucky knelt close to him worried. If their Captain didn't have enough energy to snark at them for making a fuss, then things were serious.

"What do we do," he asked Gabe.

"First, get some of that rotgut moonshine I know Dum Dum's been hiding and wash your hands as best you can. Cap, we don't have antiseptic or any morphine that works on you so if at any point you want to pass out, go for it. Frenchie, get one of Starks fancy little flashlights and give it here, this might get messy."

Dum Dum handed over the alcohol without protest and Bucky ignored the sting on the numerous cuts on his hands as he tried to wash off the smoke, dirt and gun powder. He eyed the rock Steve has gripping, noticing cracks starting to appear.

"We gotta do this fast," he said passing the bottle to Dernier who washed quickly, poring the rest on the wound.

Gabe just nodded, ignoring the strangled groan from their patient. "Start here."

The improvised operation went at a speed that seemed both fast and slow. No one talked beside Gabe as he gave instructions. It was indeed messy. Fingers slipping inside the Captain's body as they tried to maneuver the twisted piece of metal out without causing any more damage. Blood splattering the amateur surgeons as they refused to flinch. Any one point Steve lurched, crushing the rock in his hand and throwing off Dum Dum like he was nothing. Thankfully he passed out at that and both Bucky and Dernier had fast enough reflexes' that they had moved out a way so no further injury was done.

Afterwards they managed to rig up a makeshift stretcher and headed back to camp.  
Halfway there Cap woke up and immediately started insisting he was fine.  
Bucky was happy to burn off his nerves about the whole thing yelling at him to stay in the stretcher. The stubborn punk won in the end and by the time they were at the camp he was on his feet. The commandos insisted on walking a slow as possible though.

Steve healed without a scar in short order, the serum being the miracle that it was.

In all the commotion it was more than two weeks before Bucky noticed that low aches in his bones, that had plagued him since being strapped to that lab table, had gone.  
After that he simply forgot about it.

* * *

 _This fic came from some of my musings on why Zola could never replicate the serum even though it worked on Bucky._

 _There was a gap they couldn't record from when they first experimented on him to when they got him back._  
 _I figure it's totally possible that Zola's serum & Erskine's may have interacted at some point._

 _After all they were fighting a war. They probably bled on each other a lot._


End file.
